Computers and their peripheral devices are used for a wide variety of purposes including, data storage, communication, and document creation. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local bus that is commonly used to connect a computer with one or more peripheral devices. A PCI bus provides a high-speed connection with peripherals and can connect multiple peripheral devices to the host computer. The PCI bus typically plugs into a PCI slot on the motherboard of the host computer.
CompactPCI or “cPCI” was introduced in 1995 based on the PCI standard and has since become one of the fastest-growing industrial bus architectures to date. Initially targeted at the telecommunications and industrial control markets, CompactPCI takes the popular PCI interface and packages it into a smaller, more rugged unit. The most noticeable change made to the architecture was the adoption of a form factor in which all dimensions and mechanical components are standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Consequently, numerous vendors can supply mechanically interchangeable components.
One important use of the CompactPCI is in a blade server, also called an ultradense server. Blade servers are comprehensive computing systems that include processor, memory, network connections, and associated electronics, all mounted on a single motherboard called a blade. There are many types of blades—server blades, storage blades, network blades and more.
The server blade, along with storage, networking and other blades, are typically installed in a rack-mountable enclosure that houses multiple blades that share common resources such as cabling, power supplies, and cooling fans. The blades are connected into a common circuit board, called a backplane, that provides connections to and between blades for both data and power. With its modular, hot-pluggable architecture, the easily accessible blade server offers increased computing density while ensuring both maximum scalability and ease of management.
Typically, the backplane provides rows of pins, preferably configured according to the cPCI standard, for connection to the various blades that might be installed in the blade server. The blades each have a corresponding connector that includes receptacles or holes in which the pins of the connector on the backplane are received when the blade is installed. Because of the complex and tightly packed circuitry that may exist on a blade, a large number of connections are required between the blade and the backplane. Consequently, there are a relatively large number of delicate pins provided in each connection row on the backplane that might receive a blade.
The pins are packed close together, preferably according to the cPCI standard, to provide the necessary number of connections to each blade within an appropriate amount of real estate on the backplane. In part because the pins are so closely packed together, the pins are relatively thin and, therefore, somewhat delicate. A pin can easily be bent or broken.
Damage to the pins can occur when a blade is improperly installed. Damage to the pins can also occur during the manufacturing, storage or shipping of the backplane.
If a pin is broken or bent and fails to make a connection with an installed blade, the blade will likely not function properly. It may be very difficult to identify the problem as a bent or missing pin among so many pins on the backplane. Consequently, it would be very useful to be able to verify whether any pins have been bent or broken, or have shorted, prior to placing the backplane in service or installing a blade. It would also be very useful to be able to verify the proper operation of the backplane prior to assembly of the blade server.